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Processes
Special Issues
Evaluation and Optimization of Fuel Cell Performance
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Evaluation and Optimization of Fuel Cell Performance

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2024) | Viewed by 2833

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Xinyu Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China
Interests: fuel cells; multiphase flows; combustion; aerosol dynamics; particle technology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fuel cells, particularly proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, have become an important part of the energy mix schemes that can be used to replace some of the conventional fossil-fuels-fed energy devices due to their higher power densities, lower operating temperatures, and zero emission. PEM fuel cells have higher efficiencies in direct electrical energy conversion as they can directly convert the chemical energy of the fuel into productive work without involving any thermodynamic cycle. Moreover, their higher power densities and lower operating temperatures make them appropriate for automotive power systems as well as power generation devices for portable electronics and stationary units.

However, the high costs associated with manufacturing and performance testing of PEM fuel cells often make experimental studies uneconomical. Therefore, most research work on fuel cells is concerned with improving cell performance by maximizing efficiency while minimizing manufacturing and test costs through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses. Therefore, modeling and simulation play a particularly important role in the development of fuel cell systems.

This Special Issue on “Evaluation and Optimization of Fuel Cell Performance” will curate novel advances in research which either use modeling and simulation as an important component of the analysis of fuel cell systems using either commercial or open source software or present the development of new and better models of fuel cell systems or fuel cell components. Advances obtained using experimental methods are also welcomed.  

In order to maximize impact, cell-scale multiphase flow modelling of PEMFC based on fundamental processes of the complex two-phase transport, full-scale PEM fuel cell models as well as research articles using open-source software are particularly welcomed.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The development of models or simulations of the electrochemical performance of fuel cell units.
  • Simulation techniques, software, algorithms, or other tools for the modeling and simulation of transport phenomena in fuel cell units.
  • Water management in PEM fuel cells.
  • Design, analysis, control, preparation, optimization, operation, and manufacturing innovation of fuel cell systems, including fuel cell units and their auxiliary equipment.

Thank you; I hope you consider participating in this Special Issue.

Dr. Xinyu Zhang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • modeling
  • simulation
  • multiphase flows
  • fuel cells
  • tools
  • algorithms
  • software
  • design
  • catalyst layer
  • manufacture innovation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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16 pages, 1938 KiB  
Article
Electrochemical Characteristics of Microbial Fuel Cells Operating with Various Food Industry Wastewaters
by Georgios Bampos, Zoe Gargala, Ilias Apostolopoulos and Georgia Antonopoulou
Processes 2024, 12(6), 1244; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12061244 - 18 Jun 2024
Viewed by 987
Abstract
In the present work, four different wastewaters from the food industry were used in parallel, in four identical dual-chamber MFCs, with graphite granules as anodic electrodes. Specifically, a mixture of hydrogenogenic reactor effluents (effluents from a dark fermentation reactor fed with cheese whey [...] Read more.
In the present work, four different wastewaters from the food industry were used in parallel, in four identical dual-chamber MFCs, with graphite granules as anodic electrodes. Specifically, a mixture of hydrogenogenic reactor effluents (effluents from a dark fermentation reactor fed with cheese whey (CW), for hydrogen production), CW, and a mixture of expired fruit juices and wastewater from the confectionery industry were simultaneously used in MFCs to evaluate the effect of the type of effluent/wastewater on their efficiency. An electrochemical characterization was performed using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements under open- (OCP) and closed-circuit conditions, at the beginning and end of the operating cycle, and the internal resistances were determined and compared. The results showed that the highest OCP value, as well as the highest power density (Pmax) and Coulombic efficiency (εcb) at the beginning of the operating cycle, was exhibited by the MFC, using a sugar-rich wastewater from the confectionery industry as substrate (sugar accounts for almost 92% of the organic content). This can be correlated with the low internal resistance extracted from the Nyquist plot at OCP. In contrast, the use of CW resulted in a lower performance in terms of OCP, εcb and Pmax, which could be correlated to the high internal resistance and the composition of CW, a substrate rich in lactose (disaccharide), and which also contains other substances (sugars account for almost 72% of its organic content, while the remaining 28% is made up of other soluble compounds). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evaluation and Optimization of Fuel Cell Performance)
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16 pages, 3423 KiB  
Article
Research on the Control Strategy of Urban Integrated Energy Systems Containing the Fuel Cell
by Yuelong Wang and Weiqing Wang
Processes 2023, 11(5), 1584; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11051584 - 22 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1395
Abstract
As a new type of energy with the advantages of high efficiency, clean and pollution-free, fuel cells have attracted the attention of many experts and scholars. The efficient utilization of fuel cells will certainly become the mainstay of energy transformation and environmental protection. [...] Read more.
As a new type of energy with the advantages of high efficiency, clean and pollution-free, fuel cells have attracted the attention of many experts and scholars. The efficient utilization of fuel cells will certainly become the mainstay of energy transformation and environmental protection. However, fuel cells have low power density, soft electrical output characteristics, and significantly delayed response to sudden load changes. When fuel cells are used as power supply energy alone, the output voltage fluctuates greatly, and the power supply reliability could be higher. To increase the fuel cell’s service life in real world applications, a DC converter and an appropriate auxiliary energy storage power supply are combined to form a fuel cell hybrid power supply system that makes efficient use of the auxiliary energy storage system’s availability, enhances the power supply system’s adaptability through dynamic reconfiguration, and provides better flexibility overall. This work proposes a method for managing the energy produced by an urban integrated power supply system that includes fuel cells, supercapacitors, and solar cells. Applying the IF-THEN rule of load power and the state of charge of the supercapacitors, the power balance is adjusted between the su-percapacitors, photovoltaic cells, and fuel cells according to the defined fuzzy logic control. The intermittent nature of solar power production and the erratic nature of fuel cell output may both be mitigated using this technique, allowing the load power to operate more reliably. The simulation results show that the control strategy adopted in this paper is able to not only meet the load requirements but also reasonably allocate the functional requirements and improve the working efficiency of the system, resulting in a clear optimization effect on the system’s control. In this paper, we focus on the fuel cell hybrid power supply system design, and then we use the idea of fuzzy logic control energy management to build the structure of the fuzzy logic control system, design the fuzzy controller, determine the functions, and verify the solutions through simulation and experimentation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evaluation and Optimization of Fuel Cell Performance)
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